Project And Portfolio Management Applications Get SaaS-y

Historically, project and portfolio management applications have been used by big companies to bring order to their IT management and software development processes. But in these days of tight budgets and increased need to control IT spending, SMBs could use some of those same capabilities.And they are getting them, with the growing number of PPM applications being offered today on a Software-as-a-Service basis, making them easier to scale to a midsize company’s needs and budget.

“We’ve seen a tremendous uptake in the on-demand business,” said Jose Mora, senior director of product marketing at CA, which unveiled an “Essentials” version of its CA Clarity PPM On-Demand application in April that’s easier to implement and is particularly suitable for midsize companies. CA is among a growing number of PPM software developers offering customers a greater range of hosted/on-demand PPM options.

Sales of CA’s on-demand PPM applications have been growing by a factor of three with sales to both new customers and customers switching from on-premise software, Mora said. But SaaS still accounts for only about 15 percent to 20 percent of the company’s PPM sales.

PPM company Planview, Austin, Texas, began offering a SaaS version of its portfolio management application in December, and that offering, combined with a hosted version of the vendor’s software, also accounts for 15 percent to 20 percent of the company’s sales, said Patrick Tickle, executive vice president of products. Compuware also provides a hosted version of its Changepoint PPM software.

All of this comes as the recession has had a mixed impact on demand for PPM applications, according to some of the leading PPM software vendors. Some companies have frozen or even slashed IT spending this year and that includes purchases of PPM software. But for others, the downturn has brought home the need for tools such as PPM to help get their IT operations under control and reduce costs.

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